A virtual machine operating system is well known today, and includes a common base portion and separate user portions formed by the common base portion. In an IBM z/VM operating system, the common base portion is called the “Control Program” or “CP” and each user portion is called a “virtual machine” or “guest”. A virtual machine or guest is a virtual sharing/partitioning of real resources such as real memory, CPU and I/O. A guest operating system executes/runs on each virtual machine, and one or more applications run on the guest operating system. Each application and guest operating system behave as if they are running on their own private, real computer.
In some computing environments, resources are shared amongst multiple programs. Shared resources consist of shared data (including shared files and shared directories) and shared processing routines. For example, in IBM VM/370 shared data was stored in shared memory accessible by multiple virtual machines. Also, in IBM VM/CMS, some portions of memory private to the virtual machine are shared among multiple programs in the same virtual machine. VM/CMS uses private locks to determine when access to the shared memory can be parallel and when such access must be sequential. Also in VM/CMS, there are processing routines private to the virtual machine which all programs in the same virtual machine use to access external storage mediums. VM/CMS uses private locks to determine when shared processing routines can be executed in parallel and when such routines must be executed sequentially. While VM/CMS is effective in sharing resources, it is limited to sharing resources within a single virtual machine.
In IBM VM/SP6 operating system and subsequent releases of IBM VM/ESA and z/VM operating systems, data to be shared amongst multiple virtual machines (with a common base portion) resides in private memory of one server virtual machine. Likewise, a lock management structure resides in the server virtual machine. This data is shared by multiple virtual machines by requiring all virtual machines to communicate with the server virtual machine to request access to the shared data. Such communication is in the form of TCP/IP, IUCV or Guest LAN messages (described below), which are high overhead. The server virtual machine then uses its private locks to arbitrate access to the shared data. A similar arrangement is used to arbitrate the use of shared processing routines. While the foregoing arrangement provide access by multiple virtual machines to shared resources, it requires a high overhead communication protocol between the requesting virtual machines and the server virtual machine.
Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide functionality in a virtual machine operating system which effectively and efficiently provides access for multiple virtual machines to shared resources.
Another object of the present invention is to provide functionality in a virtual machine operating system which effectively and efficiently manages locks for multiple virtual machines to shared resources in shared memory of a virtual machine operating system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide functionality in a virtual machine operating system which effectively and efficiently manages locks for shared resources in private memory of a virtual machine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide functionality data in a virtual machine operating system of the foregoing type which minimizes overhead required to manage locks for shared resources.